Thursday, 3 July 2014

Says
MRO facility for C-130J viable in India once 20 of the aircraft are flying in the country

By Ajai
Shukla

Business Standard, 3rd July 14

Lockheed
Martin, the world’s most profitable aerospace and defence behemoth, is cultivating
a soft profile in India. Having already sold over $2 billion worth of weaponry,
including twelve C-130J Super Hercules special operations aircraft to the
Indian Air Force (IAF), the American company seeks to be seen as facilitating Indian
innovation; keeping civil airliners flying, and working at the cutting edge of renewable
energy.

Last month,
in what has become an annual contest co-sponsored by Lockheed Martin, a jury
shortlisted Indian technologists who had innovated commercially viable
high-tech products. Ten of these wizards, who have no market expertise, will be
flown to California’s Silicon Valley to meet venture capitalists. Last year, eight
of the ten winners found venture capitalists willing to fund them.

Even while
training IAF crewmembers on a C-130J simulator, Lockheed Martin has begun
targeting commercial pilot training. At the Flight Simulation Training Centre
(FSTC) in Gurgaon --- a joint venture (JV) between Lockheed Martin and Indian
company, Flywings --- Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 pilots train round-the-clock on
two flight simulators that look like giant crabs. Lockheed Martin has supplied
the simulators and co-owns the company.

FSTC is
already running at 95 per cent capacity, having obtained full Type Rating
Training Organisation (TRTO) certification from the DGCA in May 2013. Capacity
is being doubled to cater for an expected flood of trainees. Air Asia has
obtained its operating permit, and Tata Singapore plans to begin operations by
end-2014,

Captain
Sanjay Mandavia, a former commercial pilot who set up Flywings and now runs
FSTC, describes a simulator shortage so dire that many of the 7,000 commercial
pilots in India are going abroad for mandatory simulator training.

This
includes 16 hours of simulator training that airline pilots must fly to remain
current; several simulator hours for co-pilots upgrading to captain;
mandatory low visibility training for foggy conditions; radio-navigation
procedure training; and training for 50-100 foreign pilots that join Indian airlines
every year.

“All this adds up to about 100,000 hours of simulator
training annually, while India has just 54,000 hours of capacity. Since training
in India costs half of training abroad, we are certain to expand fast,” says
Mandavia.

Separately, Lockheed Martin is pushing to establish a
maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility for aero engines. Each year, commercial
airlines flying in India pay $700 million to overhaul aircraft engines in MRO
facilities in San Antonio, Texas and Montana, Canada. Lockheed Martin says it
would do this in the country but, ironically, India’s tax regime makes overhauling
abroad cheaper. Company sources say the government is examining the possibility
of amending this inequitable tax structure.

The company’s expertise in ocean thermal energy conversion
(OTEC) generates power using the temperature difference between ocean layers. Lockheed
Martin already has a functioning 1-MW plant off Hawaii, which it is scaling up
to 10 MW. Company executives admit they have not zeroed in on a viable site in
India.

Defence,
however, remains Lockheed Martin’s key strength. The IAF’s successful C-130J
Super Hercules has now been offered to the navy and the coast guard in a
maritime version --- the Sea Hercules. Both services are apparently interested.

Also on the
C-130J customer list is the Indian Meteorological Department. It has been
offered specially configured C-130J aircraft that fly into typhoons and
hurricanes to obtain information about major storms far more detailed than is
provided by weather satellites. The US Air Force’s 53rd Weather
Reconnaissance squadron --- the legendary Hurricane Hunters --- is a pioneer in this role.

Lockheed
Martin says that once twenty C-130J aircraft (albeit of various types) are flying
in India, setting up a local MRO facility becomes commercially viable. The
company currently services the IAF’s Super Hercules, but these will have to fly
to an overseas MRO facility after the warranty runs out. An MRO facility in
India would service not just the IAF fleet, but also regional C-130J users,
like Iraq, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE and
Tunisia.

The day I get deterred from truthful reporting by two-bit trolls like yourself... that day is a long, long ways away.

The favourite uncle who pays me is Business Standard. Lockheed Martin has faced as many negative pieces written by me as it has positive ones.

But a half-assed, bird-brained troll like yourself is not interested in this. Since nobody would pay you a cent for any writing, you need to validate your worthless existence by making unsubstantiated allegations.

I will not be posting any more of your rubbish, so go find meaning in some other blog.